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Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18. In 1982, the state became the first jurisdiction in the world to carry out an execution by lethal injection , when it executed Charles Brooks Jr.
In 2023, juries in Texas sent three new people to death row. In two other capital cases, jurors rejected the death penalty and the defendants were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. To date in 2024, Texas juries have imposed three new death sentences:
- Timeline
- Famous Cases
- Notable Cases
- Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement
- Texas “Firsts”
- Other Interesting Facts
1924 - Texas carries out its first execution by electrocution in the execution of Charles Reynolds in Red River County. 1974 - Texas reinstates the death penalty following Furman v. Georgia. 1982 - Texas becomes the first state to carry out an execution by lethal injection. 1995 - Mario Marquez, a prisoner with an IQ of 65 and the adaptive skills o...
Karla Faye Tucker(November 18, 1959 – February 3, 1998) was convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and put to death in 1998. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, and the first in Texas since 1863. Cameron Todd Willinghamwas executed in 2004 for arson in a 1991 house fire that killed his three daughters. The arson th...
Anthony Gravesspent 16 years in prison before being released on October 27, 2010. He was convicted based on the testimony of Robert Carter, who said Graves was his accomplice. Two weeks before Carter was scheduled to be executed in 2000, he provided a statement saying he lied about Graves’s involvement in the crime. He repeated that statement minut...
In September 2005, Texas implemented life without parole sentencing in capital cases. Prior to that, juries had a choice between the death penalty and life in prison with a possibility of parole after 40 years.
Texas was the first U.S. state to carry out an execution by lethal injection, executing Charles Brooks on December 7, 1982. Texas is first in the number of executions carried out in the United States since 1976.
One Texas county (Harris) accounts for 280+ death sentences and 127 executions since 1982. The Texas Governor cannot impose a moratorium on executions, as this authority is not allowed in the Texas Constitution. To give the Governor this power would require a constitutional amendment approved by voters. Clemency process: The governor has clemency a...
Jul 24, 2024 · If an individual is convicted of a capital felony, he or she may be subject to punishment by death, if the State sought such punishment. A capital felony is one in which an individual "intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual," under special circumstances.
When capital punishment was declared "cruel and unusual punishment" by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, 1972, there were 45 men on death row in Texas and seven in county jails with a death sentence.
This document explains the basic operation of the capital punishment system in Texas. It begins with the crime, and then includes a trial, incarceration, an appeals process, some final appeals, and finishes with the execution itself.
Currently, Texas state law exclusively utilizes lethal injection when it exercises the death penalty. Originally only executing people by hanging, the method immediately prior to lethal injection was the electric chair. The electric became the method for capital punishment in Texas in 1923.
